Jackie Trent

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Alternative Title:
Yvonne Ann Burgess

Jackie Trent, (Yvonne Ann Burgess), British singer-songwriter (born Sept. 6, 1940, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, Eng.—died March 21, 2015, Ciutadella, Minorca, Spain), pursued a moderately successful career as a pop singer in the 1960s, but she had her greatest successes writing lyrics in collaboration with her first husband (1967–2002), composer Tony Hatch. The duo wrote more than 400 songs, which were recorded by such performers as Frank Sinatra, Nancy Wilson, Shirley Bassey, and Dean Martin; three of their biggest hits were created for singer Petula Clark: “I Couldn’t Live Without Your Love” (1966), “Don’t Sleep in the Subway” (1967), and “The Other Man’s Grass Is Always Greener” (1967). Trent, the daughter of a coal miner, began singing in local clubs as a child and then performed in London and before British troops stationed across Europe and the Middle East. She signed (1961) with the small label Oriole Records before following her producer to Pye Records, where she met Hatch, then an experienced composer and arranger. Trent collaborated with Hatch on her hit singles “Where Are You Now” (1965) and the duet “The Two of Us” (1967), but she soon began to focus on writing lyrics and occasional tunes. Trent and Hatch also crafted theme songs for TV shows, notably the prime-time soap operaNeighbours, which debuted in 1985 in Australia, where they lived for more than a decade (1982–95). The couple separated—both personally and professionally—in 1995, though their divorce was not final until 2002. At the time of her death, Trent was living in Spain with her second husband and was working on a stage musical based on her life.